Magus Tian looked on as the last room of the Imperial Magi Tower was cleared. He had two months on his own to look through it before he shared it with the rest. It wasn’t as if anyone regularly checked the top floor.

It was a worthy trade. Especially when all the non-passive spells required the skill [Seer-Sight]. It had been difficult not to reveal that. He didn’t doubt the [Archon] might learn the secret one day, but it should be years before he managed anything of note. Assuming he had such an interest in their Seer spells.

“What is your impression of the [Archon]?” the Guildmaster asked him.

Tian was one of the few who stood above this man, having both power and seniority beyond that official position. But he still respected the Guildmaster - as they all did. It wasn’t a simple administrative position.

“Unhinged and grossly powerful beyond all reason. He’s a single bad day away from either trying to conquer the world or destroy it.”

“And would his be a wise rule?” the Guildmaster chuckled. He took Tian’s words seriously but had little worry for the actual consequences. So long as they weren’t the ones to awaken the sleeping dragon, it should be logical enough to spare them. And if it wasn’t logical enough? Then there was no point in predicting the actions of such an irrational being.

“If his Guild is anything to go by, it would be an opulent rule only kept together by his overwhelming resources, power, and counsel of friends and family.”

“And his Soul?”

“Modified; perhaps beyond a normal Magic-Touched, if ‘normal’ could ever describe them. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it. Three forces, one the orignal with a strange presence, one Arcane, one darker and more fearsome than the deadliest shadows. His Third Tier Trial shall be beyond reason. His future is bound.”

“Foolish.”

Tian looked askance at the Guildmaster.

“To reach the class of [Archon], what do you think his Trial was?”

“But…”

“We and others have already underestimated him to such a degree so many times. Why not be the first to overestimate him?”

Tian let out a long sigh. He didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“Do you think I should try and join his Dungeon Party?” Tian asked. Nearly every party of note would have at least one of their number to act as a scout and guide.

The Guildmaster just left with another chuckle, leaving Tian with an obvious answer.

Talvara briefly let out a smile at the quick agreeance, before losing her good mood. She couldn’t understand in the slightest why this was happening to her. Was she truly such a destable existence that not even the followers she had taken care of so well could stand being beside her?

“What happened?”

Talvara bit her lip as she thought over how to explain. Before she managed that, she found herself wrapped in a hug. Despite wanting to complain, the Void-Being didn’t bother. She let her true Soul, and not an Avatar, enter the White Void and wrap around Rainer.

Sitting with a smog-like creature wrapped around him, Rainer just waited patiently until Talvara felt like talking. No amount of ‘wrongness’ he felt from her existence could overwrite the care he had for her… as a friend, he reminded himself, finding an easy way to channel the love Francis had felt for her.

She reformed a distance away, doing her best to hide her embarrassment.

“My followers have betrayed me en masse. By offering up their connections, they even managed to help the Divines hurt my Soul severely. If it were only one or two… but for nearly all of them to offer their connection for use… I do not know if it’s a damage I can recover from.”

“After the offer… you… had received from Divinity Augost, I paid more attention. In the end, I caught all three major clans trying to free themselves from their connection to me. I managed to strip of power and kill two Tier 3 Void Lords; the rest escaped, along with much of their clans. As of now, I fear only Aurora and perhaps very few others remain loyal to me. Though who knows for how long. I didn’t send her to help you exclusively for my entertainment, you know.

“You need not fear for this world, I managed to descend long enough to destroy all the gateways.” And lost nearly half her power after the Divines that Descended attacked her. She wasn’t sure how long the damage to her true body would take to heal along with her Soul. “At the very least, assuming you leave the ones here alive, it’ll be months before they have the gateways ready again and are able to travel here.”

Rainer didn’t know enough about how she ran things to make a judgement either way. But he was plenty capable of feeling angry on her behalf. Leaving her was one thing, yet they had caused her so much harm? Rainer knew full well how much worse pain of the Soul was compared to physical.

And he had little doubt the Void Lords could become a major problem - especially if they didn’t just gain freedom, but a new master. Not to mention they were a group of slavers and conquerors. They would hardly take a moral high-ground when it was their time to die.

“First things first,” he said with as much calmness as he could, “let’s kill all the traitors within my reach.

“The rest can live on borrowed time.”

Looking like a 25-year-old man - and feeling it - Arturius was beyond happy. It turned out his brand of magic had eventually unhidden the Lifespan attribute. Dumping points into it had been an obvious choice for the short redhead. So long as he had classes to level, he would have a life to live. It was information he planned on trading for something else later. Like how they created this white space he currently sat in where they were speaking to a creature pretending to be Human-like.

Not that he believed anyone could actually learn the skill and spell combination that unlocked the Title and then Attribute. It was a corruption of the Soul few had the heart to manage. Though the chance he might never reach the 3rd Tier because of a changed Soul, something he learned recently, was disappointing. He certainly wouldn’t be the first to test that information.

“So there are seven of these ‘Void Lords’ we’d need to kill?” Frederick asked.

The absurdly powerful creature of the Void nodded to the old man’s unneeded clarification. Why she needed their help at all was beyond him. Perhaps her power limited her movements in some manner. Were not Divinties the same in that manner? How he desired to pick apart a god. Maybe if he got in good enough with his grandson, the lad would capture one for him some day.

Art was quite excited as well about capturing one of these Void Lords alive. He was more than willing to go on such a mission for that sake alone. Getting bonus points for helping Rainer was even better. The young man would have far less prejudice against him than Frederick. Art didn’t even understand the old man’s continued hatred; now that Art achieved continuous life, he was less interested in his legacy and far more interested in keeping his life. There was only minimal threat from him to everyone else.

And he wasn’t stupid enough to piss off the Nvos family in their current state. Oddly enough, it was that odd Fairy and strange bubbly Undead that scared him the most. Those who consumed Souls had always drawn an innate fear from him. And something about that Fairy’s inner fire spoke of assured death.

How did such a young and weak thing even gain the control of such a powerful Fire? It clearly had a baseline sentience, yet seemed content as a passenger. Or was she its sentience? Was she the Fire? That she was not a clone and truly a homunculus by every sense of the word interested him even further.

But he would never speak these questions aloud. In fact, he made a point to never even look at her.

He was thankful for Elizabeth’s advice in that case. As the Fairy had been born and raised as an experimental subject, Art knew any uncomfortable questions could easily lead to him being put to the sword. All that Arcane in their brains made the two Nvos men far from what could be considered mild-mannered. He laughed inwardly.

His new youth was far too precious to give up so stupidly.

“We should handle this as soon as possible,” the younger of the two Nvos men spoke, “Amer is willing to explain how his barrier ritual works. We don’t need it as strong, so no sacrifice and just Mana should be enough.”

“Let’s get to work then,” Art said, unable to hide his excitement. When did he ever get a chance to learn such powerful magic for free?

Rainer stood in the air, floating above the island where the Void Lords had their underwater fortress. With Aurora as their mole, they were all gathered. They would strike when she was on guard duty, using her careful control of [Void Detection] to mask them from her second.

Now, they were waiting for the results of Art’s poison. He had begun developing it back when he was one of many to chase after his grandfather, only for it to be casually flushed out by Frederick’s now-named [Arcane Haste]. The gloating expression on Frederick’s face was hard to miss. Normally, Rainer would wonder why, then, Sophia had married his dad, only to remember that, if Mage families who chased after Frederick were taken out of the dating pool, there would probably be few Mages on Earth they could see.

Rather than being a main attacker, Rainer’s primary role was to use [Void Hold] on his allies to block out any fatal [Void Call] attacks. Though they were hoping for a bloodless encounter. But according to the information they received from Talvara, [Body of Void] had a ‘side effect’ of devouring both good and bad effects from the body. It was just a question how effective Art’s poison would be.

A few minutes later they were all stunned from the sight.

Rising from beneath the water, Arturius soon flew before him. Growing out of his back, numerous roots gripped eight unconscious Void Lords.

Opening [Arcane Revelation], Rainer eyes widened in both utter shock and fright. A magical poison? Perhaps only in the technical sense. From the small bits of magic he could see and understand, it was no different than an artificial virus. What use was [Body of Void] when your body itself became corrupted?

Looking for the first time at Art’s soul as well, he saw that it was oddly physical, made up of intertwining darkened roots that spread throughout his body.

Quickly, Rainer glanced across everyone else and gave a sigh of relief when he found no similar magics hiding within them. Had letting this Magus access [Sleep Learning] been a terrible idea? Taking it away now would only make things worse. It was best to speak to his mother about Art in this case.

In the distance, Art’s sense of pride and accomplishment had vanished as fast as sweat appeared on his forehead. He knew a part of his newly grown cowardice was that he no longer had a life soon to end, but that knowledge didn’t help calm him down.

He thanked his wisdom of deciding against his original idea of implanting a few sleeping versions of his poison in everyone. It was meant to be both a monitoring and safety measure for himself, but now all he could see was that wretched reality-cutting blade ending his bright future of millenia. Even if he grew stronger, how was he supposed to defend against such a ridiculous thing? He was never one for speed-type magics.

It was time to think in the long term. Surely there were other Arcanists out there somewhere, and surely one had done something Rainer wouldn’t morally approve of. Then why did he need to worry over the Nvos or any of theirs? Perhaps he could even corrupt Rainer a bit. It was only a short fall from killing for your safety and friends, to killing for purely personal gain.

A world-traveling experimental subject gatherer, how wonderful such a thing would be.

“Grab your friend, and I assume you are fine with me taking the rest?” Art managed to eventually ask.

“Check their minds. If they aren’t particularly bad, make it a quick death, please, and get rid of them once the gateways are recreated,” Rainer thought it over. They had caused Talvara great harm, but he wasn’t going to allow anyone tortured only for that.

Given what Art knew of these Void Lords, there were unlikely to be any free from cruelty. So it was an obvious option for him to agree. He doubted Rainer would take into account their society of slavery, and being born around such casual cruelty when judging them.

“As you wish, Grandson. Rick, you can double-check my work.”

He briefly smiled at the nervousness that crossed his old rival’s face. After hearing all the capabilities of these fearsome Void Lords, it would certainly be a shock to see them brought down so easily.

Of course, that was ignoring that he wouldn’t have been able to get within miles without someone of extreme and delicate skill blocking their [Void Detection].

“Let’s see if they have anything of value in there,” Elizabeth said during the brief tense moment. Rather than worrying over her clan’s patriarch, she’d rather check for loot.

“Let’s go.”